


Oh Very Young

by hjea



Category: Firefly
Genre: Drinking, F/M, Fairy Lights, Gen, Movie Watching, Napping, Post-Serenity, cranky captains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-01
Updated: 2012-03-01
Packaged: 2017-10-31 23:16:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/349417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hjea/pseuds/hjea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Mal forgets how young Simon, Kaylee, and River are. It makes him feel old.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Oh Very Young

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted 11/24/06.

They were all three of them piled on the couch, eyes fixed to a cortex screen when Mal came to the bottom of the stairs.    
  
“Hey, any of you seen-“    
  
Kaylee put a finger to her lips. “Shh, Cap’n.” She whispered lazily, “S’a good part of the movie.”    
  
She was draped across Simon’s right side, her head lolling on his shoulder, knees inching onto his lap, while River leaned up against his left. No sense of interrupted intimacy between them, just a gentle, sated, fatigue rolling off of them in waves.    
  
Mal rolled his eyes and shifted uncomfortably, suddenly feeling like  he  was the one interrupting something, despite the welcoming smile on Kaylee’s face. She beckoned to him and he walked stiff-kneed around the couch to see what it was they were watching.    
  
A young couple seemed to be professing their undying love for each other in the pale light of twin moons, and Mal glanced at Simon to see how he was dealing with this sort of development. But the doctor seemed content, pillowed between a set of long, warm limbs and Mal looked away again, quickly, before his eyes moved back.    
  
He watched, as the blue-lined couple danced in the reflections of half-lidded eyes and scratched the back of his neck.    
  
“Cap’n you can sit and watch it you want.” Kaylee’s voice was kind, as always. “S’almost over but…”    
  
“Nah, that’s okay.” Mal glanced at his feet again and gestured over his shoulder. “I have stuff… and I was looking for the spanner to-“    
  
River seemed to yawn with her whole body, back arching like a cat, before she settled against her brother again and turned her face to Mal’s.    
  
“In the kitchen. Jayne had it last, but that’s where he left it.”    
  
Mal nodded. “Right. Well. I’ll be going then.”    
  
Simon smiled, seemingly just now acknowledging his presence. “Bye Mal.”    
  
He had turned back to the stairs when Kaylee’s voice piped up again, sounding far more nervous than it had before.    
  
“Hey Cap’n, you know… it’s nearly the holidays an’ I was wondering if  _maybe_  I could-”    
  
Mal’s shoulders slumped and he suddenly felt just too damn tired to put up a fuss.    
  
“--You can put up your fairy-lights, Kaylee.”    
  
The sound of sudden, joyful exuberance followed him up the stairs, and he knew his ship would be festooned before the next morning.    
  
\--   
  
Inara was sitting at the table, turning through the pages of a book, when Mal walked in and wearily pulled up a chair.    
  
“I feel old.” He slumped and scowled immediately when his elbow banged against the table’s edge.    
  
Inara smiled in understanding and tucked a bookmark into her page. “Are they still watching the movie?”    
  
Mal nodded. “Bumped into them too, huh? You didn’t stay?”    
  
“No.” Inara shrugged. “I felt old, too.”    
  
He snorted, “You ain’t much older than them.”    
  
She hummed in agreement and looked down at the table’s surface, ran her fingers along its grains. “But I felt it.”    
  
His fingers itched and he suddenly found himself wanting to tuck that stray piece of bobbing hair into place, let the back of his hand drag, lingeringly, over a smooth cheek. She glanced up at that second though, and something in her eyes stopped him and caused Mal to push his chair away instead, crossing the room in a few quick strides to dig into the back of one of the cupboards. His hand emerged triumphantly, grasped around the neck of a bottle and he grabbed a couple of mugs before returning.    
  
“This’ll cure that feeling.”    
  
Inara raised her eyebrows as Mal poured a generous amount in each cup.   
  
“It’s been known to, yes.”    
  
He raised his mug in a toast, “Might even pickle you if you’re lucky,” he added as she clinked hers against his.    
  
She sipped and made a face. “Or kill you.”    
  
Mal shrugged. “Make a pretty corpse.”    
  
They sat quietly for a minute, and Mal felt his momentary joviality drain away again. Breaking the silence, he looked up a little ruefully and sighed. “Told Kaylee she could deck the halls of this ship.”    
  
Inara’s fingers arched around his; warm, firm and steady.    
  
“You’ll live.”    
  
He twirled the liquid in the bottom of the mug before throwing it all back at once.    
  
“Yep. I guess so.”


End file.
